


Conversion

by jdphoenix



Category: Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-28
Updated: 2012-04-28
Packaged: 2017-11-04 11:47:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/393492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jdphoenix/pseuds/jdphoenix
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The break isn't slow, it's quick and sudden and happened one night when the moon was full and a curse was lifted.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Conversion

**Author's Note:**

> So much happens in every episode of this show that it's hard for me to keep track of it all down the line, so I used [this article](http://vampirediaries.alloyentertainment.com/the-many-lives-of-alaric-saltzman/) and wikipedia's articles on TVD seasons to refresh my memory. Quotes from _Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince_.

_"How do you split your soul?"_

When Damon Salvatore puts a stake through his lung it hurts but no more than watching the bastard murder his wife. When the pain ends he's not surprised.

"So, this is the afterlife, huh?" It's not that he's unimpressed, more that he just doesn't care.

He's in a strange state. He exists but he has no body and he isn't actually anywhere at all. He can perceive the world - Damon's pouring himself a drink, kicking his lifeless arm out of the way - and he can feel _others_. There are voices, like a million crazy, homeless guys muttering to themselves and they all press in around him. Some whisper, some scream, some cry.

"No." A woman's voice - _not_ Isobel's, but he shouldn't be expecting her now, should he? - answers him. The nearest voices go silent and he feels their presence withdraw. He can still feel them but not as suffocatingly close. "And yes," she adds after a moment's hesitation. "From here the cursed dead are forced to watch the living but never interact, and to watch generation after generation pass them by into the true afterlife."

"So this is what I get for single-mindedly devoting my life to killing vampires?" So far it's not sounding nearly so bad as he thought hell/purgatory/hades/whatever would be.

"No," she says again. "You will remain here for only a short time before returning to the realm of the living."

His confusion reverberates through the - he calls it 'air' but since he's dead ….

"The ring your wife gave you, it makes you immortal. It is a great gift. She must have loved you very much."

He mulls this news over. "I can still kill him."

"You shouldn't waste your time on the likes of Damon Salvatore."

"He's a murderer, a monster."

"Yes. But there are far worse than him."

"Worse? Worse than the man who brags to my face that he-"

Alaric's heart starts up again and the shock of living drives the memories of the beyond to the deepest depths of his mind.

 

_"Well, you must understand that the soul is supposed to remain intact and whole. Splitting it is an act of violation, it is against nature."_

The next time he dies a different voice greets him.

"Somehow I thought a hunter in Mystic Falls would do more hunting." He knows Sheila Bennett instantly. He met her long before Damon, when he interviewed for a crappy teaching position at the university before hearing about the death at the high school. He liked her.

"I've been kind of busy keeping the kids alive. You may have heard there's this curse-"

"I've heard," she cuts in, annoyed at the insinuation. "You cannot allow it to be broken - but not because _she_ wants it upheld."

"She? You mean-"

He's dead, so he's pretty sure he can't be hit upside the head. Feels like he has been though.

"We don't have much time," Sheila hisses. "I had to call in favors from a hundred witches to keep her away from you this time. You can't trust her."

Alaric wants to ask why, to point out that even though the mysterious woman didn't think Damon was much of a problem, she did talk about things worse than him. He's still smarting from the not-smack though, so he keeps quiet.

Sheila seems to read his mind. "I'm not about to defend vampires, they're abominations, there's no two ways about it, but what that woman wants is far worse."

This time Alaric can't keep silent. "What does she want?"

"To kill her own children."

There's a tug. The wound is healed. Not much time left now.

"And if that wasn't bad enough," Sheila says, "she'll kill a million more in the bargain."

Alaric breathes and forgets it all.

 

_"But how do you do it?"_

He's not dead while Klaus inhabits his body, but he's close enough for the woman to whisper in his ear while he watches a psychopath dismantle his life. Esther, she calls herself, tells him about her life, her family, the death of her child.

He doesn't have children, he can't understand that kind of pain, but he does know how far loss can drive a person.

"I get it so far, but why would you want to kill your children after all that?"

"You have to ask me that? My son killed your wife, he's possessing your body, he's planning on murdering many of the children you've worked so hard to protect, and I can only imagine what he'll do once he's free of my curse."

"And what about _your_ plans? I hear you're planning on murdering millions of people."

Esther's answer is firm with resolve. "When my children die, so will the vampires they created. The curse I set loose upon the world will finally end."

Alaric thinks of Damon, Stefan, and Caroline. He thinks of Isobel, dead now, but if this woman had succeeded in her plans a little earlier…

Esther tells him of the centuries she's watched her children and her children's children. He ignores her as best he can, holding onto memories of the people he loves. There have to be others - it's not possible that the only three good and decent vampires in the world ended up in the same small town - and he can't condone hurting others the way he's been hurt, let alone help. He's not stupid, he knows that's what Esther wants. She's trapped among the dead and needs a foothold among the living. He won't give her that. He may not be able to fight her son's hold on him, but he's not about to turn around and be the mother's weapon.

When he is freed from Klaus's hold, he's happy to forget.

 

_"By an act of evil - the supreme act of evil. […] Killing rips the soul apart."_

Part of him is relieved when Damon snaps his neck. It's been over a month since Jenna died. He's been waiting for the chance to have this talk with Esther.

"Tell me what to do."

He's been wrong, all wrong. He thought it worth it to let the bad vampires live because it meant sparing the good ones. Good vampires. Isn't that a joke? Damon kills indiscriminately. Stefan, who he once thought of as the good brother, is no better than an animal. Even Caroline killed and she feels no remorse compelling humans at every turn, even knowing what that violation feels like first hand.

He never says it but he's glad Jenna died in the sacrifice. She was good and kind and loved him in spite of all his lies. He couldn't bear to see her reduced to her basest desires, with no thought for the people around her. And she would have been, he knows that now. As Bonnie's blood slides down his throat he feels something new being born within him. The weaker half of him is gone, replaced by something darker. He nurtures it with thoughts of Jenna and Isobel, of Elena's tears and blood on Caroline's lips. He can feel what they are now, the power, the rush.

Esther was right. They're monsters. They have to die.


End file.
